What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by SocialNightmare

Seen Iron Man 3 at the cinema yesterday, i personally loved it , great fun very light hearted and some pretty decent laugh out loud moments thrown in too, loved Ben Kingsley he played his role brilliantly, yep the film heads down the farcical lane quite a bit which is probably why some purists are a bit peeved but my 14 yr old boy thought it was brilliant, quoting him " well better than Avengers Assemble and TDKR" << money well spent imo

I thought Iron man 3 was great as well, best in the series imo.

On the other hand I watched Dark knight rises again with friends last night and.....well the charm has worn off. I liked it at the cinema well enough but on the small screen it doesn't hold up nearly as well as any of the marvel films and I have to say its actually a wee bit shit and very boring Certainly it doesn't hold up to repeat viewings.

Bane is a weak villain, Nolan seems increasingly ashamed of the characters comic book roots and by this third entry it feels more like a film Nolan is turning out for the studios simply in order to get his more personal projects greenlit. Occasionally I change my mind on certain films and Dark knight rises is going to be one of those.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE LORDS OF SALEM - Generally quite liked this 'new direction', which substitutes a sickly, detached Euro-feel for the more manic stylisation of his other stuff. Succeeds in building an atmosphere of slow burn dread, although I wished R Zombie had been a bit more generous with the Russelesque psychedelia we see towards the end.

THE COLLECTION - Sequel to 'The Collector'. First half hour had me feeling a little dismissive due to the choppy but flat 'Saw' franchise type style, but interestingly this blossoms into vivid Italo-horror bombast by the end (in quite a tightly controlled way, too). Pretty gory, with some nice set pieces involving mannequins. I liked the way the killer's mask made his face look like that of a demented eel. Definitely worth a look.

I DIDN'T COME HERE TO DIE - At first I thought this was overhyped, but by the end I was thinking "no, this is great stuff with all the hallmarks of a cult classic to be". At least it's a clever, funny slice of anti-horror which dispatches its kids in the woods with wit and verve. The culprit is no backwoods slasher, but something more abstract - a plot device based on miscommunication and overinterpretation, randomness and existence being a total bitch. If Beckett had done low rent indie genre deconstruction, this would be the result.

LA TRASGRESSIONE - Italian exploitation from the late eighties. I say 'exploitation', but for most of the run time I was scratching my head trying to figure out whether it was coming from an art or a sleaze direction, because at times it plays like a bad approximation of both. A psychology student takes a hit of a magic serum and transforms into a total psychopath, hangs out with a spoilt but equally vicious rich girl and goes on a rampage during which bad things happen and nudity occurs... or does it? Maybe it's all a dream. Or is it? Doesn't feel anything like last gasp Italian genre product of the time. I don't know what it feels like, but if you enjoy clowns with umbrellas who look like they might symbolise something then you might dig this strange little oddity.

BIOTHERAPY - Obscure Japanese trash from the mid-eighties with an alien monster pissing off a bunch of scientists working on a secret drug. There's some gore and a palatable run time (about forty minutes, which suits my attention span these days). It lacks the sleazy punch of something comparable like 'Entrails of a Beautiful Woman', but still manages to be entertaining and diverting enough. I don't think it has an official release.

AMITYVILLE 2 - THE POSSESSION - I've never bothered with it in the past, but decided to check it out after reading some good reviews on here. I was surprised at its intensity, and for a mainstream B movie it manages to be pretty sleazy in places. Some of the sub- 'Poltergeist' haunting effects seem a bit stale, but the portrait of the violent forces at work within the nuclear family is really hard hitting. Enjoyable trash but also paradoxically quite dark - definitely a 'find' as far as I'm concerned.

[Slippery Jack]

And Soon the Darkness
I found this quite engaging for the first half at least. I’m always attracted to thrillers featuring tourists stuck in an unfamiliar environment. After the one hour mark or so though, my interest began to wander. The lack of any significant action for a long stretch of running time, as the girl searches for her missing friend, I found quite tiresome. Picked up a bit for the climax, but not a film I’d come back to in a hurry.

Schizo
I love a bit of Pete Walker, but I definitely found this to be one of his lesser efforts. The story I found quite dull, and I missed the lack of a juicy villain character like Sheila Keith or Anthony Sharp. Lame scares and extremely dodgy psychology added some comedy value at least, there’s always something to enjoy in his films!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

And Soon the Darkness
I found this quite engaging for the first half at least. I’m always attracted to thrillers featuring tourists stuck in an unfamiliar environment. After the one hour mark or so though, my interest began to wander. The lack of any significant action for a long stretch of running time, as the girl searches for her missing friend, I found quite tiresome. Picked up a bit for the climax, but not a film I’d come back to in a hurry.

Was this the original or the remake.?

I think the original film is superb, extremely creepy, with an almost claustrophobic atmosphere of dread.

The remake is shite though.

[SShaw]

This afternoon I watched Jaws on blu-ray. Fantastic.

This evening I have some ironing to do, so will probably put on Sightseers to keep me company.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike

Was this the original or the remake.?

I think the original film is superb, extremely creepy, with an almost claustrophobic atmosphere of dread.

The remake is shite though.

I thought the remake was okay, but nothing special. As I said in my review, it's certainly better than most of the other recent horror film remakes.

[gag]

Just a curious Q? What are people favourite sites / forums to go on to learn about latest releases?
Because to be truthful I don't buy any mags and apart from going on here that's all I do and want to have a few fav site bookmarked to go on and learn latest release any film foreign world cinema etc etc .

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by gag

Just a curious Q? What are people favourite sites / forums to go on to learn about latest releases?
Because to be truthful I don't buy any mags and apart from going on here that's all I do and want to have a few fav site bookmarked to go on and learn latest release any film foreign world cinema etc etc .

Blu-ray.com
Hi-def Ninja
D&T Mailorder (sign up for their newsletter and they'll email you about upcoming releases)
The Digital Bits
DvdActive

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Demdike

Was this the original or the remake.?

I think the original film is superb, extremely creepy, with an almost claustrophobic atmosphere of dread.

The remake is shite though.

The original I'm afraid. Like I say, I thought the first half did a good job of establishing the tone and mounting dread. But as it went on I began to lose patience with the film. Girl goes up the road to look in the bushes. Girl goes back down the road to the spooky cafe. Girl goes back up the road and looks around again. Girl goes back to the spooky cafe, then back to the bushes... just seemed to take a long time to get anywhere! Maybe me being tired at the time didn't help . . .

[Make Them Die Slowly]

DREDD. Nowhere near as much fun as the similarly plotted THE RAID. Sorry Hawk.

BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW. Rabidly anti youth and counter culture madness set in the mud, a theme that runs throughout another weird beard film of the same time period, PSYCHOMANIA. That said, both films are high on my all time fave list as they perfectly capture the esoteric folk byways of an England that is real and mythic at the same time.